What to Expect

Before Surgery

Please come to the pre-operative assessment clinic on the second floor of the West Tower for your pre-admission testing, anesthesia interview and nursing assessment. Your doctor’s office will let you know when to come for the appointment. If you did not receive an appointment time, please call (850) 747-6070 to schedule an appointment.

Please bring the bottles for all of the medications you are currently taking, both prescription and over-the-counter. We will need to make a detailed record of everything you are currently taking and any allergies to medications.

What to Bring For Children Having Surgery

Parents should bring an empty bottle or favorite cup, toy or blanket, and extra clothes and diapers.

What to Expect When Arriving for Surgery

When you arrive, please sign-in at the volunteer’s desk and have a seat. A nurse will bring you back to change into your surgical gown, take your blood pressure, listen to your lungs and take your temperature. Your nurse will give you any pre-op medications that are ordered.

You will be visited by a member of the anesthesia staff and then taken to pre-op holding. Your family will be asked to return to the waiting area.

In pre-op holding, you will have patches placed on your chest to monitor your heart, a clip placed on your finger to monitor your blood oxygen levels, and a blood pressure cuff placed on your arm.

A nurse or anesthesia provider will start your IV (fluid in your vein) using a local anesthetic.

Your Operating Room nurse will talk with you and then you will be brought to the operating room by your nurse and/or anesthesia team.

What to Expect After Surgery

You will go to the post-anesthesia care unit or recovery room on a stretcher and the monitors will be reattached. You will be in the recovery room for about one hour before being sent to ambulatory care or your inpatient room.

Your doctor will talk with your family in the waiting room.

If you are going home that day, you will return to ambulatory care, where you will be given fluids to drink and be assisted to sit in a chair, when possible.

If you are being admitted to the hospital, you will be transported to your room as soon as you and your room are ready. Anyone waiting in the waiting room for you will be given your room number.

When you are ready, you will be discharged to your home, which usually takes one hour. You will be taken to your car in a wheelchair.